Chairman of the Board, Waseem Rizvi, in a letter to chief minister Yogi Adityanath, said that it would be a matter of pride for Indians, and will put Uttar Pradesh on world map.

(Photo for representation)

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Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board on Monday announced that it will gift 10 silver arrows if the 100-metre tall Lord Ram statue, proposed by chief minister Yogi Adityanath, is constructed in Ayodhya.

Chairman of the Board, Waseem Rizvi, in a letter to the chief minister, said that it would be a matter of pride for Indians, and will put Uttar Pradesh on world map.

Speaking to ETV, Waseem Rizvi said,“UP government’s decision to erect a statue of Lord Ram is commendable. In keeping with the Ganga-Jamuni tehezeeb of Awadh, these silver arrows would be just a token of admiration and love from Shias to Lord Ram,” he said.

“The Nawabs of this region always respected the temples in Ayodhya. Even the land for Hanuman Garhi in central Ayodhya was donated by Nawab Shuja-ud-Daulah in 1739, while the funds to construct the Hanuman Garhi temple were provided by Nawab Asif-ud-Daullah, between 1775 and 1793,” Rizvi said.

He also said that the sole motive behind gifting 10 silver arrows was that the way Ram killed all the monsters with his arrows, today it has become necessary to end the monsters of terrorism in India.

Days ago, when the Yogi Adityanath government proposed the construction of a grand statue of Lord Ram, Shia Waqf Board applauded the decision. However, their Sunni counterparts and legal experts had termed it as "unconstitutional".

It was said that in a secular country, a government cannot involve or associate itself with a project of such nature.

Wasim Rizvi, who was earlier considered to be a close aide of Samajwadi leader Azam Khan, was in controversies involving anomalies in the land deals of Shia Waqf Board.

He had also favoured the construction of Ram Temple on the disputed site in Ayodhya, claiming the land originally belongs to Shia community.